Transition timing

LAURA WEIGHTMAN AND HER COACH STEVE CRAM DISCUSS EVENT TRANSITIONING WITH MATT LONG

- MATT LONG

ON September 8, 1974 the European men’s 5000m final was in its middle stages at Rome’s Stadio Olympico.

In heading a 15-strong field, a British athlete numbered 317 on his white vest embarks on an audacious mid-race surge. As he enters the back straight with 8:16 on the clock, the Gateshead Harrier dramatically pulls away from Olympic 5000m and 10,000m champion, Lasse Viren. Animated BBC commentator David Coleman exclaims: “The man who dominated distance running at the Olympic Games has fallen apart.”

A knee-trembling 60-second lap sees Brendan Foster leave men like Jos Hermens and Klaus-Peter Hildenbrand trailing in his wake. Four-and-a-half laps later the Brit romps home to gold in 13:17:21 - a staggering six seconds ahead of West German, Manfred Kuschmann.

As the bronze medallist Viren shakes his hand, Coleman tells his audience “That was devastating, aggressive, full of self-belief.”

Coleman is no longer with us but exactly 45 years after that European final, it’s a current BBC commentator who is once again waxing lyrical about the performance of a fellow Geordie and his former colleague Foster.

In speaking about his athlete Laura Weightman, coach Steve Cram tells his Rutland Water training camp audience that “she needs to be able to both respond to a break and surge like Brendan did when he would kick hard mid-race.”

Back on October 5 last year in Doha, Weightman finished a highly impressive seventh (14:44:57) in a world championship final won by Kenya’s Hellen Obiri in a championship record. Significantly the Morpeth athlete placed second European behind the hugely talented German, Konstanze Klosterhalfen.